CREDAI reiterates its pledge for supporting the Government of India achieve “Housing for All” mission

The apex real estate industry body CREDAI has reiterated its pledge for realising the Prime Minister’s dream of ‘Housing for All’, and has committed an investment of over Rs 70,000 crore in 375-plus new affordable housing projects. These projects would be spread across India and would involve development of over 8.60 crore sft of land and more than 20.60 crore sft of construction, to build a total of 2,37,000 houses. CREDAI is in dialogue with State Bank of India (SBI), its national banking partner, to create special financial packages both for home loans and for construction finance.

Jaxay Shah, president of CREDAI, has said, “We are all set to embark on a journey of a Naya Daur for the real estate industry against the backdrop of introduction of various policy reforms which are aimed at facilitating growth. This presents a huge opportunity, not just for our members or our industry, but for the nation itself. India has a recorded shortage of 20 million homes and our endeavour is to ensure that we overcome this shortage by placing consumers at the center of all our efforts. Our 375 housing schemes will realise the dreams of millions of Indians who are waiting to own a house.”

The project was inaugurated by Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, at the investiture ceremony of CREDAI’s new executive team. The event was also attended by Nitin Patel, deputy CM, Gujarat and Shankarbhai Chaudhry, Minister for Environment and Urban Development, Gujarat. Naidu, while congratulating CREDAI for the initiative, said, “I would like to congratulate CREDAI on the initiative being taken to align the real estate industry with the objective of ‘Housing for All’ of the Government of India.”

Working on the shortage of skilled workforce, CREDAI with its skilling partner PNB Housing Finance Limited (PNBHFL) has entered into a MoU for skilling 8,000 construction workers during 2017-18. CREDAI has so far trained more than 50,000 trainees at over 100 construction sites across 30 cities, and aims to train one lakh construction workers this year. Apart from on-site skilling at construction sites, CREDAI has also started skilling of unemployed youth by setting up off-site skill training centers in places from where labour is traditionally sourced. The first such centres have been set up in Murshidabad and Medinipur in Bengal, Nashik in Maharashtra, Vijayawada in Andhra and Bhiwadi in the NCR region.

CREDAI is exploring the possibility of setting up more such centres in the states of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and places like Dahod in Gujarat, and Gulbarga in Karnataka. The Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (CED), Government of Gujarat has also approved CREDAI’s proposal to skill unemployed youth in construction related trades with an aim to make them employable, and also to undertake on-site skill upgradation programs for construction workers in Gujarat.

CREDAI Clean City Movement Limited (CCCM Ltd) is being set up to promote clean and green India drive at the national level. The CCCM plans to cover a million households in 30 cities over the next two years. Further, CREDAI has also signed an MoU with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), which is part of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), for sustainable environment development. “I am pleased that CREDAI is adopting a holistic approach to contribute to the country’s development. Their focus on Government of India’s vision of ‘Housing for All’ and incorporating Gujarat cities in their CREDAI Clean City Movement (CCCM) to make Swachch Gujarat and Swastha Gujarat is commendable,” said Nitin Patel, deputy CM of Gujarat.

Shankarbhai Chaudhry, Minister for Environment and Urban Development, Gujarat, added, “CREDAI’s strong commitment to our economic growth deserves appreciation. Their efforts in the direction of reducing carbon footprint by tying up with CII’s Indian Green Building rating system for green affordable housing can definitely become a game-changer.”